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Posts Tagged ‘Northern Broadsides’

Two Noble Kinsmen

Posted in Theatre, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on June 4, 2018| Leave a Comment »

I’m finding it increasingly difficult to enjoy an evening at the Globe. Nothing to do with the shows, but a lot to do with the audience, who’s behaviour appears to have deteriorated more than elsewhere, partly because the venue seeks to replicate Shakespeare’s period. On Friday I had to contend with simultaneous translation to my left, a middle aged couple making out in front, food & drink noise and talking all around, mobile phones, incessant photography and stewards attempting to stop the photography and in doing so walking loudly on the wooden floors, making it worse! I like to immerse myself in a show; these distractions make that impossible. I’ve been there many many times in its twenty year history, but the forthcoming Othello may be my last visit.

Based on Chaucer’s The Knight’s Tale, from the late 14th century Canterbury Tales, there now seems to be a consensus amongst scholars that this play was a collaboration between Shakespeare and John Fletcher, towards the end of his career. The two kinsmen, Arcite & Palamon, are very good friends, both nephews of a discredited king, who find themselves in the custody of King Theseus. They both fall for Theseus’ sister-in-law Emilia, which sets them on an adversarial course. The king imprisons Palamon and banishes Arcite, before deciding they should fight it out for Emilia’s hand, the loser and his followers to be killed. When Palamon was in jail, the jailer’s daughter fell for him and this provides a sub-plot as her love for him sends her insane.

Though I’ve seen it before, I hadn’t grasped the fact that A Midsummer Night’s Dream is happening offstage while this story is being told; very clever. Barry Rutter’s production has the earthiness that became the trademark of his company Northern Broadsides, with excellent costumes by Jessica Worrell and music by folkie Eliza Carthy (which I’m afraid I thought was all over the place). It’s boisterousness suits the Globe, with songs and dances to sweep it along. Bryan Dick and Paul Stocker are well paired as the kinsmen and there’s a trio of charismatic royals from Jude Akuwudike as Theseus, Mayo Akande as Hippolyta and Matt Henry as Pirithous. Ellora Torchia as Emilia and Francesca Mills as the jailer’s daughter both delight.

I just wish I could have enjoyed it more, but don’t let that stop you.

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2013’s Best Plays

Posted in Theatre, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on December 31, 2013| Leave a Comment »

NEW PLAYS

Chimerica – Lucy Kirkwood’s play takes an historical starting point for a very contemporary debate on an epic scale at the Almeida

Jumpers for Goalposts – Tom Wells’ warm-hearted play had me laughing and crying simultaneously for the first time ever – Paines Plough at Watford Palace and the Bush Theatre

Handbagged – with HMQ and just one PM, Moira Buffini’s 2010 playlet expanded to bring more depth and more laughs than The Audience (Tricycle Theatre)

Gutted – Rikki Beale-Blair’s ambitious, brave, sprawling, epic, passionate family saga at the people’s theatre, Stratford East

Di & Viv & Rose – Amelia Bullimore’s delightful exploration of human friendship at Hampstead Theatre

Honourable mentions to the Young Vic’s Season in the Congo and NTS’ Let the Right One In at the Royal Court

SHAKESPEARE

2013 will go down as the year when some of our finest young actors took to the boards and made Shakespeare exciting, seriously cool and the hottest ticket in town. Tom Hiddleston’s Coriolanus at the Donmar and James McAvoy’s Macbeth for Jamie Lloyd Productions were both raw, visceral, physical & thrilling interpretations. The dream team of Adrian Lester and Rory Kinnear provided psychological depth in a very contemporary Othello at the NT. Jude Law and David Tennant as King’s Henry V for Michael Grandage Company and the RSC’s Richard II led more elegant, traditional but lucid interpretations. They all enhanced the theatrical year and I feel privileged to have seen them.

OTHER REVIVALS

Mies Julie – Strindberg in South Africa, tense and riveting, brilliantly acted (Riverside)

Edward II – a superb contemporary staging which illuminated this 400-year-old Marlowe play at the NT

Rutherford & Son – Northern Broadsides in an underated 100-year-old northern play visiting Kingston

Amen Corner – The NT director designate’s very musical staging of this 1950’s Black American play

The Pride – speedy revival but justified and timely, and one of many highlights of the Jamie Lloyd season

London Wall & Laburnam Grove – not one, but two early 20th century plays that came alive at the tiny Finborough Theatre

Honorable mentions for To Kill A Mockingbird at the Open Air, Beautiful Thing at the Arts, Fences in the West End, Purple Heart – early Bruce (Clybourne Park) Norris – at the Gate and The EL Train at Hoxton Hall, where the Eugene O’Neill experience included the venue.

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Rutherford & Son

Posted in Theatre, tagged , , , , , , , on March 22, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Just over a month after The Orange Tree Theatre’s superb rediscovery of The Stepmother (https://garethjames.wordpress.com/2013/02/16/the-stepmother), The Rose Theatre in Kingston is hosting Northern Broadsides brilliant revival of Githa Sowerby’s only successful play. Well done Surrey!

In his programme note, director Jonathan Miller says he thinks her writing resembles the best of Chekov; well, for me it’s a whole lot better than Chekov – much more dramatic and much more relevant. Her grandfather and father set up and ran a large glassworks in Gateshead, so she must have known this world well. Though Rutherford is an early 20th century northern industrialist, he could be a 21st century entrepreneur or press baron. He’s larger than life and charismatic, oozing power. He’s also a tyrant, a misogynist and a bully.

His wife is dead, his business is struggling and his children are a huge disappointment. He sees son John, returned from London with a wife and son, as unworthy of the family name. Richard, a vicar, is another lost cause. Daughter Janet, a thirty-something spinster, has had to keep home instead of marrying, starting a family and living a life of her own. His favourite employee Martin is better than the lot of them. As the play unfolds, he puts his business before everything and as a result destroys his family.

Relocated from Tyneside to Yorkshire, more to suit the company than anything else, the language becomes as rich as the tale it tells. The story has you in the grip from the start and never let’s go. There’s a realism and naturalism which transcends time and the characters are beautifully drawn. Though it all takes place in one room, it shows you a whole world of the upwardly mobile in the industrialised north. It’s always captivating, sometimes funny, and at times – such as the atitude of bankers to small manufacturing businesses – bang up-to-date!

The play was a revelation 19 years ago at the NT, but this production is even better, largely because it fits Northern Broadsides like a glove – and that’s much more than authentic accents; these actors inhabit their characters like they’re bringing their ancestors alive. Sara Poyser is wonderfully passionate and indignant as Janet. Broadsides regular Richard Standing is outstanding as ‘servant’ (Rutherford’s words) Martin. Kate Anthony plays Rutherford’s sister Ann beautifully, contemptuous of the south and forever sniping at young John’s wife Mary, who in the end is the only one who stands up to Rutherford – another lovely performance from Catherine Kinsella. Towering over all of this is Barrie Rutter’s Rutherord, every inch the industrial tyrant, a simply stunning performance.

The NT had this in its list of the top 100 plays of the 20th century and this production proves that conclusively. A deeply satisfying evening in the theatre.

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The Stepmother

Posted in Theatre, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on February 16, 2013| 1 Comment »

Githa Sowerby is an early 20th century female playwright you may never have heard of, but two of her plays have just opened. The first, Rutherford & Son was produced at the NT in 1994 (directed by Katie Mitchell, before she became a born again deconstructionist) and it was brilliant. It has just been revived by Northern Broadsides and is on tour, coming to The Rose in Kingston in March. When it was produced at The Royal Court in 1912 it was credited to K G Sowerby as they thought it would be panned if it was known to be by a woman. It was a big success, but for some reason she wasn’t very prolific (4 plays?) and this play came twelve years later. Based on the two plays, she seems to me to have been streets ahead of contemporaries like Shaw. This is a superb play.

The beginning of the story is unusual, even unlikely. When a woman dies, her 17-year old companion Lois is taken in by the woman’s brother and aunt. Lois proves to be the beneficiary of the will and brother Eustace goes about taking financial control and indeed marrying her, so she becomes stepmother to his two daughters. He’s a real loser and Lois ends up as wife, mother and breadwinner, though the marriage is far from happy. She sets up a successful dressmaking business and develops a relationship with neighbour Peter.

The second act moves us forward ten years. Monica, one of her stepdaughters, wants to marry, but her intended’s father (a family friend with whom Eustace has clashed) insists on a dowry. At this point, the true financial picture emerges and Eustace is revealed as devious, manipulative and heartless. A complex series of events unfolds as the futures of Eustace, Lois and Monica are determined.

This is such a cleverly structured, well written play. It must have been very brave to tackle these issues at that time. It’s brilliant storytelling and it’s never predictable. Acts 2 & 3 (the fast-paced second half) are dramatic masterpieces. The audience was gasping and audibly commenting in outrage as facts are revealed, such is the intensity of the drama. Sam Walters staging is masterly. It’s a while since I was at the Orange Tree Theatre and I’d almost forgotten how involved you become in this in-the-round (well, square) space in such close proximity to the action.

Christopher Ravenscroft was simply brilliant as Eustace; I was half expecting someone to leave the audience and give him a slap, such was the realism of his interpretation. Katie McGuinness was just as good as Lois, handling the emotionality of the role with great delicacy. There were lovely performances in the smaller roles of the adult stepdaughters from Jennifer Higham and Emily Tucker and a delightful cameo from Alan Morrisey as Monica’s intended, Cyril.

This is a deeply satisfying and unmissable evening. It’s such a good play, you will be astonished that it had only one performance when it was written and has not been seen again until this production. Now I can’t wait to revisit Rutherford & Son in five weeks time. Please tell me there are more Sowerby plays to be unearthed.

You have only three weeks left to see this neglected masterpiece.

 

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